Getronics sharpens chopper, eyes 2,500 of its people

Dutch IT services provider Getronics is firing up to 2,500 staff to counter effects of the market slowdown in its homeland, but refused to be drawn on potential cuts to the UK workforce.

Telco parent KPN has reported a drop in second calendar quarter results showing a near 2 per cent drop in sales to €3.29bn as EBITDA fell more than 5 per cent to €1.31bn and net profit fell 11 per cent to €414m.

Results at the Getronics subsidiary hardly gave reason to crack open the champers either, with revenues sliding more than 3 per cent to €462m and EBITDA halving to €15m.

A spokesman told El Reg that fierce pricing competition in the market had impacted margins, down to a little over 3 per cent, and it has accelerating cost-cutting.

The plan is to slash about 5,000 jobs by 2015, he said, "as part of that restructuring programme the first jobs cuts will be at Getronics, 2,500 [positions]". This equates to one quarter of the headcount in the Netherlands.

Back-office staff are set to be impacted with roles outsourced to India, the spokesman added, but he refused to comment on the specific areas impacted.

"We are looking at all areas to improve our services. We want to align our costs with the services revenues that we make," he said. "It is a difficult market where customers are postponing decisions to invest."

Job cuts at the UK organisation were made early last year following the loss of several large contracts, but the spokesman refused to comment on any further impact on headcount. ®